Listening Booth: Homeshake’s “Every Single Thing”

The lyrics of Homeshake’s “Every Single Thing” catalogue a one-way exchange in which our hero can’t shake his cloudy inner monologue long enough to hear the girl battling for his attention.

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY HOMESHAKE

You might imagine Homeshake as Mac DeMarco without the guitar. It’s a messy comparison, as are many that pit musicians against one other, but you’d be forgiven for making it: Peter Sagar served as DeMarco’s tour guitarist before 2014, when he bowed out from the band to make his own droopy falsetto R. & B. under the Homeshake name. The amount of heavy petting between indie rock and R. & B. in recent years might have sent Pavement and Brandy into a tailspin, but, for all the posturing, some brilliant concoctions have arisen: Frank Ocean and Alex G’s “Self Control” arrived as an affirmation against skeptics that called it a “fad” three years ago. Isn’t it all blues, anyway?

Homeshake certainly sounds sad enough. “Every Single Thing” is his slinky, chewy new release, and sounds like Slim, of 112, discovering Washed Out: toy synthesizers and handclaps sneak around underneath soft-wrapped drums while a bass line tells your brain which way to bop next. But the singer’s lost in his own head, to be sure: the lyrics catalogue a one-way exchange in which our hero can’t shake his cloudy inner monologue long enough to hear the girl battling for his attention. “I was dreaming as you spoke,” he sings, knowing that most fans don’t listen to the words anyway. There are higher romantic stakes present in most R. & B., and wetter emotions from most bands, but coy blends like Sagar’s take themselves lightly enough to get at simpler thoughts, and have more fun along the way.